Shane van Gisbergen of Australian Supercars fame – and winner of the Chicago street race in his first turn behind the wheel of a Cup Series race car – has signed with NASCAR Chevy team, Trackhouse Racing, for 2024.
Van Gisbergen will compete in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions next season, driving in select races in the Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Cup Series, along with late-model and other stock car racing divisions. His efforts will be supported by Trackhouse, which has agreed to build a program to broaden van Gisbergen’s experience in American stock car racing.
“This announcement means so many things to me,” van Gisbergen said in a press release. “I’m proud of what I have achieved here in Australia, but I’m excited by this new chapter in my career and the opportunities that it brings. I’m so thankful to everyone who has played a role in my career so far, especially Triple Eight Race Engineering, and looking forward to finishing our year with a few more highlights!”Â
He added, “It is time for a new challenge and this adventure into NASCAR will be the biggest challenge of my career and one I’m really looking forward to.”
The race on the Chicago streets and the subsequent race at the Indy Road Course mark van Gisbergen’s only two starts in the Cup Series, driving the No. 91 NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1, both at road courses. He also has one start in the Truck Series at Indy, which is his only experience thus far on a paved oval track.
At the time of this writing, it’s not clear if van Gisbergen will continue to drive with the No. 91 on the door, or if he will assume a new number. His sponsors and schedule will be announced at a later date.
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I personally think he will have a hard time adjusting. In the USA drivers drive 800ks on a Friday in the truck race, then the same drivers do 800ks on Saturdays Xfinity race, then front up for another 800ks on Sunday for the Cup series race, and that is every week end, in Australia they race for one hour each month or six weeks, and if the race goes more than an hour, they have to have a second driver to take over so the other driver can take a nap, Then there are other silly rules, if you get to close to a cars shadow, five second penalties are handed out. If they saw the NASCARS bump and run, they would have a cardiac arrest. I can understand now, back in July at the Chicago street race, VSG announced to the world that Supercars are boring.